summer in a bag

Why carry lots of bags and rugs when a furoshiki will do? Just fold and knot the furoshiki to create the bag you need:

- A shoulder bag to carry your things to the beach - then undo the knots and you have beachmat
- Basket style for your picnic, and unwrap for a picnic cloth
- A variety of handbags to carry all those essentials whether you're out in the evening, or in the day
- or even for the slender, a sarong!


See them now in our Coriandr, Dawanda and Folksy shops.

Hold the front page!

How great to see our red geometric furoshiki featured on the front pages of both Coriandr and Folksy today!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 3

* Day 3 *

Oh to be curled up on the sofa with a good book and
one of these lovely book marks from Creativesque to keep my place.

Happy birthday, Coriandr!

Coriandr is one year old! It's a great young site run by the incredibly helpful and committed, Mat, and I'd just like to wish it Happy Birthday and even more success in years to come. Take a look here for a fantastic collage that Mat has created of some of the fabulous Coriandr creations.

Also, if you're very quick, you can catch some of our gingham furoshiki featured on the front page today, alongside a selection of beautiful earrings from fellow ex-Expressites, the lovely Ruby Spirit Designs
and Sweet Treat,
and from Sarabuk, another talented Yorkshire jewellery maker, who was kind enough to mention us in her recent featured seller interview (thank you!).

See the animals!

Just noticed our set of four animal themed screenprinted furoshiki are featured on the front page of Coriandr today :) alongside fellow Coriandr ex-Expressites - Julie Mills Design and Blue Fish Handmade. I also particularly like this blue cow giclee print from Alexandra Ashby.

fluffy furoshiki

Everyone needs a little fluffiness in their lives now and then, so here are some fluffy furoshiki sets - beautiful, textured fabric squares to wrap those special gifts and a handmade fabric pom pom for an original finish!


The furoshiki can be used individually or together to create a multi-petalled effect and the pom pom would also make a lovely hanging decoration (thinking ahead a bit here:) )

(The sets are available on Folksy and Coriandr.)

What's a patchwork pocket furoshiki?

Well it's a new addition to the myfuroshiki range with which I'm quietly quite pleased and I hope everyone else will like too. It's:

• an unusual design - not a style of furoshiki that I've seen anywhere else before
• patchwork - a carefully chosen mix of fabric for a cheerful shabby chic look
• pockets - this is the neat bit! The patchwork is stitched across the diagonals onto a larger, calico backing so when tied it forms outer pockets on the furoshiki bag, handy for all the little bits and bobs of life
• green - not just in shading but also because it makes use of those pieces of fabric which are too small for a furoshiki but too nice to waste!
• multipurpose - mainly intended as a bag but like any furoshiki has multiple uses: gift wrap, cushion cover, small table cloth ...

This is one that I've just listed on Coriandr, with a few more to come on Coriandr and Folksy. What do you think?

Stocking up for autumn

Getting ready for the Saltaire Makers' Fair was quite a challenge as I didn't have any idea as to how many people would be visiting and how much stock I might need for a two day market. As a result I was holding off listing anything on our online sites so that I'd have as much as possible set aside for the fair. Now tho I'm enjoying replenishing the stores and here's a flavour of what I've been busy listing.

Today has been all about our own design screenprints which are now available individually on Coriandr, Folksy and Etsy:

I've got lots more new furoshiki lined up to list - just need to take some photos, so fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow!

Try TomatoTea!

Welcome to TomatoTea, the latest and, sadly, last Coriandr Express VIP (from this train anyway). It's been a great journey of discovery, the train's been bursting at the seams with so many talented people and it's been a pleasure browsing and buying such lovely items ... and at the wonderful TomatoTea's shop you'll find even more.

Katrina says that she loves to dabble in all things textile but frankly anyone who can hand dye and hand spin wool into lovely colours like this (and on a traditional wheel)

AND dream up fabulous patterns like this furry hood


AND then whip up lovely little items like these cute keyrings (don't they make a great mobile?)
has taken dabbling to a whole new level!

There are lots more of Katrina's creations in her Coriandr shop (with 10% off all yarns until the end of the month) and you can find out more about other special offers on her blog ... and for the answer to the question that everyone wants to know read her Coriandr Express interview.

Ruby Spirit Designs

I'm really happy to introduce the latest Coriandr Express VIP, Ruby Spirit Designs. This is the place to go for unique jewellery pieces which bring together new and broken or forgotten vintage items into a fresh new whole - beautiful and eco-friendly!

Having seen Tracey's work online, I was thrilled to meet her at my first market and was so taken with her creations that I had to buy one of her bracelets to mark the event. It's a beautiful blue bead charm bracelet, similar in style to this lovely summer pudding bracelet, and a real delight to wear.

There is such a range of lovely things available in Ruby Spirit Design's Coriandr shop that it's hard to pick just a couple. There are pretty bead earrings and unusual brass ones featuring swallows, butterflies and, my favourite, dragonflies.



And then there are these striking vintage button rings which are only £5 - and even better there's a further 10% Coriandr Express discount until the end of July. At that price how can you resist?



You can find out more about Ruby Spirit Designs at her blog and don't forget, there's a 10% discount on all items in her shop until the end of July. See you there!

Exmoor Express

The Coriandr Express is now steaming its way through the glorious Exmoor countryside to pick up Hen of Heart and Soil Baskets.

As well as caring for woodland, pasture, meadow, river and miles of hedgerow in Exmoor, Hen weaves beautiful baskets from Somerset willow and carves curvy spoons! It's a real joy to come across lovely items such as these, crafted in a sustainable manner; here are a couple of my favourites.

You can find out more about Hen in this Coriandr Express interview and please have a look at her blog where the beauty of her woodland and her love of the environment shine through.

So sweet

Morning! It's quite early, the sun is out and there's that lovely new day freshness in the air; the kind of day when you should be wearing Debbie Thompson's Sweet Treat jewellery. Debbie combines vintage and new beads to create pretty drop earrings and delicate necklaces that look like a summer garden


or good enough to eat.


Debbie is the latest in a long line of fabulous Coriandr Express VIPs - find out all about them on Coriandr Express blog - and go and treat yourself to a summery Sweet Treat now.

Small is beautiful

Welcome to the latest Coriandr VIP, Molly McCausland, creator of the charming Tiny Pretty Things, lovely little drawings of strange but cute characters. Molly's tiny drawings are not only beautiful but eco-friendly, being done on recycled and reclaimed packing card.

My personal favourites are the Inspiration Ninja


and this whistling giraffe (I always wondered what they were up to up there!)


but have a look at her shop to find the one for you.

Love, Light and Peas

Welcome to our latest Coriandr Express VIP, Lottie of Love, Light and Peas. Lottie has a great talent for transforming something old into something new. Here's what she says about her work

"I like to focus on using up stuff that other people would think was rubbish. In the past I've made baskets from drinks cartons, bags from plastic bags and jewellery from train tickets. At the moment I'm focusing on stationery sets made from unusable books. There'll always be some knitting and other fibrey goodness in there, too! I try to keep my waste and packaging to a minimum, because waste is just so unnecessary. It's very rare that something from my crafting sessions goes to landfill." There's more about Lottie's creations and inspirations in this interview with her on the Coriandr Express blog.

It's great to come across someone who is so committed to reusing and recycling. I particularly like this stationery she has on offer

all things bright and beautiful ...

Welcome to the 14th Coriandr Express VIP, lej jewellery. Joanne who is the creative force behind lej not only makes a range of pretty, colourful jewellery but also bookmarks and suncatchers, which would make perfect gifts. There's a lovely summery theme running through her shop with a mermaid charm bracelet, seashore pendant and pretty shell bracelet. So get in tune with the heatwave and hurry along to her shop!

Pretty in pink ... (and lots of other colours too)

Have a look at CeeGee Jewellery for a range of delicate sterling silver jewellery using Murano, lampwork and semi-precious gemstones. Carolyn, who's the latest Coriandr Express VIP, creates simple designs which let the beads and stones speak for themselves. They make me think of summer weddings and gifts for god daughters. For myself, I love her seashell pendant which looks like a planet swirling in space. Carolyn's very generously offering 10% off all items for the next week, so hurry along to her shop and read more about her in the Coriandr Express blog.

The Coriandr Express has stopped again to pick up a new VIP, the fabulous Frutejuce who can make her sewing maching sing with her edgy free motion embroidered babygros and vests for toddlers with attitude and cute bags.


I especially like her felt fridge magnets, particularly this colourful little bird


and she has a keen eye for funky fabrics, like this amoeba purse



Alison is offering 10% of all her items until the end of June so make sure to visit the FruteJuce Coriandr shop and read more about her on the Coriandr Express blog.

And here, as a founder member of the cuddly Panda Pops appreciation society, is a panda furoshiki :)

A Very Important Person

Welcome to the latest Coriandr Express VIP - Alice of Snapdragon Beads! Alice specialises in off loom bead weaving (something which I'd never heard of before) and the results are a range of circular motif pendants, earrings, brooches and hairclips in an array of absolutely gorgeous colours. These range from the delicate shades of her Primrose Pin


to the glowing greens of these wonderfully named Frog Princess Earrings


to the royal richness of this Purple Velvet Pendant.


There's free shipping on all Snapdragon Beads until the end of June so take a look at Alice's shop for more of her vibrant designs and read more about her and her work on the Coriandr Express blog.

Coriandr Express furoshiki challenge (2)

Well here we are, my second batch of furoshikis dedicated to our fellow Coriandr Express VIPs.

First up is a plant pot wrap for Dig the Earth:


An aubergine coloured kitty for Kitty Ballistic:


And a blue bookwrap for Creativesque to go with her blue bookmarks:


You can find my earlier attempts for BlueFishHandmade, Julie Mills, Pirate Pixie Crew and Mrs Toad Designs here and, coming soon, Nics Knots and Debbs Elliman .....

Hope you like them :)

It's magic!

Just look at this apple wood wand. No, it's not from Ollivander's but Debbs Elliman's magical Coriandr shop, which is full of beautiful dichroic glass jewellery like this glowing heart


and this amazing bracelet which seems to take on different colours in different lights.


Debbs is the latest Coriandr Express VIP and donates to FLEECEHAVEN sheep sanctuary www.fleecehaven.org.uk. So please hurry along to her shop and look out for the Fleecehave logo next to certain items where a percentage of the sale price will be donated to them.